Jen Hyde is surprised by a team of Edwards Lifesciences workers who constructed her heart valve that saved her life. Separated by glass, they were in the company’s clean room, where the valves are made. Hyde was with her mom, Katherine, left.

Heart valve recipient Jen Hyde of Brooklyn, N.Y., feels the hands of Mary Bui, an Edwards Lifesciences employee who helped create the valve that saved Hyde’s life. The work requires skilled and patient hands.

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Looking under an 8x microscope, an Edwards Lifesciences employee demonstrates how a heart valve is sewn together.

Edwards Lifesciences employee Bella Duyon, who assembles heart valves for patients, makes a heart symbol with her hands as a valve recipient takes a cellphone picture.

Jen Hyde, at left, has an emotional meeting with Fabi Cortes, who helped create Hyde's heart valve, during Edwards Lifesciences first Patient Day. Employee Mary Bui, right, was also part of the team that created the valve.

Edwards Lifesciences in Irvine hosts a Patient Day where a group of 50 patients and their guests get a tour of the manufacturing facility. They learn about how their heart valves are made.

Karen Lovelace is emotional as she meets the Edwards Lifesciences employees who worked on her mother, Wilma Smith's heart valve. Referring to her mom Smith said, "I love her and we were going to lose her. They saved her life."

These were the women who made up the team at Irvine-based Edwards Lifesciences that hand-crafted Hyde’s heart valve, implanted in her chest five years ago.

On Friday, Hyde was one of several patients who visited the Edwards headquarters and got to meet their valve makers.

“It has been really special,” said Hyde, who teaches writing at New York University. “It’s not an opportunity to put a face on any product. This is a product that is mine, that’s in me. I’ll never see it, but it keeps my heart beating. It helps me live.”

The women who sewed her heart valve were Mary Bui, a 16-year Edwards employee and Martha Morales, who has done it for 33 years.

“This is the first time I’ve met a patient,” said Morales as Hyde held her hands. “When I look at her, I can see that my work has value. What I do helps people. To see (Hyde) so happy and healthy makes me so happy.”

The company, for the first time, invited 50 patients and their families to take a tour Friday of the manufacturing facility. Some of the patients got to meet the employees who stitched or put together their device.

The visitors were given a tour of the Edwards campus and led to the building where the lifesaving devices are made. The building features a heart valve museum with valve models from over the years. It also displays interactive videos showing how Edwards’ modern transcatheter valves are slid into the heart through a minimally invasive incision in the patient’s thigh, eliminating the need for open-heart surgery.

Behind the museum is a clean room with large glass windows where hundreds of employees sit in rows, hunched over microscopes – stitching, crafting and assembling the valves.

On Friday, they looked up to wave at visitors. Employee Bella Duyon formed a heart symbol with her hands as visitors took photos with their cellphones.

Norma Ryder, 89, drove from Perris to meet her valve makers, Tracy To and Elaine Tran.

“This has been so emotional for me,” she said. “I’ve been surprised by not just the cleanliness and precision of their work, but by the genuine compassion and concern shown by the employees.”

Jessica Jaboke, 31, of Kansas, said she received a ring made at Edwards, which fixed her leaking heart valve. It has been nine years since her lifesaving surgery and so far, it has worked perfectly.

Jaboke, who recorded a patient video for Edwards a few years ago, said her situation inspired her to become a cardiac sonographer, performing echo cardiograms and stress tests on patients.

“I share my story with them and they are grateful to get that support and know they’re not alone,” she said.

Eileen Bradner, 55, of Arlington, Va., also received a ring to support her valve – 20 years ago. She was a single mother at the time who had just adopted a 3-year-old girl from Russia.

“She had already been orphaned once; I couldn’t bear of idea of her being orphaned for a second time,” Bradner said.

Bradner is now vice president of a local chapter of Mended Hearts, a national nonprofit that offers support for heart patients and their families.

Hyde said meeting the valve makers was significant because her own mother is an accomplished seamstress who has worked in the textile industry in Indonesia.

Hyde marveled at Morales’ hands and nimble fingers.

“Your hands are so tiny!” Hyde exclaimed.

Fabi Cortes, quality control manager on Morales’ team, told Hyde: “Yes, they are tiny, but very special.”

Deepa Bharath covers religion for The Orange County Register and the Southern California Newspaper Group. Her work is focused on how religion, race and ethnicity shape our understanding of what it is to be American and how religion in particular helps influence public policies, laws and a region's culture. Deepa also writes about race, cultures and social justice issues. She has covered a number of other beats ranging from city government to breaking news for the Register since May 2006. She has received fellowships from the International Women's Media Foundation and the International Center for Journalists to report stories about reconciliation, counter-extremism and peace-building efforts around the world. When she is not working, she loves listening to Indian classical music and traveling with her husband and son.